A classifier-combined method for grading breast cancer based on Dempster-Shafer evidence theory

Preoperative non-invasive histologic grading of breast cancer is essential. This study aimed to explore the effectiveness of a machine learning classification method based on Dempster-Shafer (D-S) evidence theory for the histologic grading of breast cancer.

A total of 489 contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) slices with breast cancer lesions (including 171 grade Ⅰ, 140 grade Ⅱ, and 178 grade Ⅲ lesions) were used for analysis. All the lesions were segmented by two radiologists in consensus. For each slice, the quantitative pharmacokinetic parameters based on a modified Tofts model and the textural features of the segmented lesion on the image were extracted. Principal component analysis was then used to reduce feature dimensionality and obtain new features from the pharmacokinetic parameters and texture features. The basic confidence assignments of different classifiers were combined using D-S evidence theory based on the accuracy of three classifiers: support vector machine (SVM), Random Forest, and k-nearest neighbor (KNN). The performance of the machine learning techniques was evaluated in terms of accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and the area under the curve.

The three classifiers showed varying accuracy across different categories. The accuracy of using D-S evidence theory in combination with multiple classifiers reached 92.86%, which was higher than that of using SVM (82.76%), Random Forest (78.85%), or KNN (87.82%) individually. The average area under the curve of using the D-S evidence theory combined with multiple classifiers reached 0.896, which was larger than that of using SVM (0.829), Random Forest (0.727), or KNN (0.835) individually.

Multiple classifiers can be effectively combined based on D-S evidence theory to improve the prediction of histologic grade in breast cancer.